Aralia echinocaulis Hand.-Mazz.

Trees, small, or shrubs, 2-10 m tall, andromonoecious. Branches with dense, brownish, slender needlelike prickles 5-20 mm. Leaves 2-pinnately compound, with a pair of accessory leaflets at each division of rachis; petiole 30-44 cm, usually unarmed; petiolules 3(-10) mm; leaflets 5-9 per pinna, oblong-ovate to lanceolate, 6-14.5 × 2.5-8 cm, membranous to papery, both surfaces glabrous, abaxially glaucous, secondary veins 6-9 pairs, prominent on both surfaces, tertiary veins subconspicuous abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, base rounded to obtuse, margin serrate, apex acuminate. Inflorescence a terminal panicle of umbels, glabrous, unarmed; primary axis to ca. 40 cm; secondary axes 10-20 cm; ultimate axes with a terminal umbel of bisexual flowers and 1 to several lateral umbels of male flowers; bracts narrowly triangular to lanceolate, ca. 4 mm; umbels 12-25(-30)-flowered; pedicels 1-2 cm, furfuraceous. Ovary 5-carpellate; styles 5, free. Fruit globose to subglobose, 3.5-4.5 mm in diam.; styles persistent, radiating. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Sep-Nov.

Anhui (Huang Shan), Fujian, Guangdong (Lechang, Lianshan, Yingde), Guangxi, Guizhou (Fanjing Shan), Hubei (Badong), Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan (Jingdong), Zhejiang (Changhua, Tianmu Shan).

● Forests, roadsides, thickets, rocky cliffs; 200-1600 m.